Bad Luck and Pumpkin Ice Cream
by fantasylover200
Summary: One little slip up is all it takes, as Qrow and Roman learn the hard way. What can come of this outcome? Qrow/Winter, ambiguous Roman/Neo, Slight OOC. This story is also on deviantART. May or may not become an AU series.


The sound of a light flicking on above the barely concious Huntsman, tied up on a wooden chair. The light above him swings around slowly like a pendulum. Slow footsteps echoed the otherwise dark room closer to the waking man. The sound of a whistling tune came in afterwards. Forward came a man in a white jacket and cane, hooked in his arms. "One. Little. Slip up." He spoke in a soft tone, with a hint on venom. "That's all it takes to ruin the perfect crime." He turned to face him, lighting a cigar. His face illuminated, showing the face with a mix of anger and annoyance. "Do you have _any_ idea how hard it is to find a tamed Geist Grimm in Vale?"

The Hunstman looks to the man, seeing him in double vision. The swinging light didn't help, only making him feel nauseous.

"Very, _very_ hard. I suppose that's what happens when we run into you." The end of the cane met the face of the Huntsman, who grunted in pain. "Qrow Branwen, was it? You've done allot just to find us haven't you."

"What...what gave me away...?" The dizzy hunter asked, looking to the man in front of him, all he could see was a white coat, but his vision was getting clearer.

"Let's just say you're not exactly great at subterfuge," The theif smokes while walking to the side, his back to him. A reflection on a bit lf glass shows him as double. "The rum did it too. You smell like you just came out of an old pirate barrel."

"And you smell like you just stuck your head up a chimney." Qrow tries loosening the ropes on his wrists, to no avail.

"You...aren't wrong." The man turned, seeming surprised by the accuracy from before coming up to his prisoner. After the mess up from before, the boss woman wasn't too pleased to say the least, nearly incinerating him on the spot, and while he survived, some wooden crates did not.

Clearing his throat, the man continued to walk, the curved part of the cane going around Qrow's face, who grunts from the stunt. "Now, we have this three ways this can go down; One, you tell me just who sent you after our little operation and messing up our plans," He moves the burnt end of the cigar to the Huntsman's eyes. "Or two, I blind you, maim you, and just kill you right now by tossing you out that window."

Qrow's response was to blow out the cigar's burnt end, much to the man's annoyance. "What's option three?" He asked.

The man is white points his cane to the door. "She makes you spill your guts." Heel steps were heard in front of Qrow, and a woman, about as tall as he was sitting in the chair, stood in front of him. Eyes matching the color of her brown and pink hair, each on opposite sides. She was carrying a parasol behind her neck.

"...Wait...Ice Cream Girl?" Qrow looks to her, both surprised and disappointed. "You work for this nimbwad behind me?"

The pint sized girl frowns, hitting him with the blunt end on the parcel across his face. Another groan escapes him. "For the love of...!"

"Her name is Neo." The man said. "And she doesn't exactly like it when someone insults me or her. So watch what you say around her."

Now smirked once again, still facing Qrow, who only glared at her, blowing some hair out of his face.

"Now," The one with the cane spoke as he relit the cigar. "Start talking. Or else." Just then, more lights were turned on all around the room, the man looks around confused. "Who the hell turned on the lights?!"

"Uh, I did, Mr. Torchwick," Someone at a door spoke behind Neo. The three faced a White Fang member. "Sorry, bust there's a problem downstairs that needs you're attention."

Torchwick's eye twitched, breathing out, clearly annoyed, putting his lighter away. Except it never made it to his pocket, falling into the hands of Qrow without knowing it. Qrow, realizing so,etching hit his hands, closed them immedetly.

"I'll be right down." He leaves the room, growling at the White Fang member under his breath. "Neo, watch him." He closes the door, which had a window pane on it, said window shattered as he shut it. Torchwick just stops, sighing and his hand meets his face slowly. He then leaves the sight of the two in the room.

* * *

Qrow looks around, the room was smaller than expected, he looked out the window, the ground floor had White Fang members and Grimm in chains, some of which were attacking the terrorists before being pulled back. He then looks to the tiny capture, still surprised that she was with _him_ of all people.

"Neo, was it?" He asked, tired of the silence.

The tiny girl smirked, just sitting on a wooden box in the room.

Qrow sighs, shaking his head, all while fiddling with the lighter. One more flick and...before it lit the ropes up, someone grabbed it from him. He turned his head, seeing Neo behind him. He looked back to the one on the box, which dissolved into nothing. He looks again to the real petite woman, her boss's lighter in hand, circling the him.

"What is that, Dust? Hard light?" He watches, not knowing what her next move is. She only wagged her finger in response, then put it to her lips, gesturing to him that he'll never know.

"Damn secrets," Qrow growls lightly. "What's next, saying you can talk but won't?"

No answer. Neo just turned away, heading for the door.

"...If you see your boss, tell him his hat looks dumb."

She stops, turning her head and glaring at him, her smirk gone.

"What, too much? Can't help it if he looks like he came out a Beowolf's ass."

The quiet girl turned to face him, stepping forward, her parasol handle twisted, unsheathing a blade inside.

'If the timing is right...' Qrow thought, his feet ready to jump. "And what about you hmm? Did someone mix up strawberries into you and turn you mute?"

That did it. Neo then did an upward slash at the Huntsman, who in turn, did a backflip in the chair, just enough timing for the blade to meat the ropes on his hands behind him. He then landed face first on the ground, getting back up slowly while Neo looks at him, wondering what the hell just happened.

"Ahhhh, damn it!" Qrow grabs his back getting up. Neo thrusts forward with her blade at him, which he dodges by side stepping and grabbing her arm. Neo then climbed up onto him, kicking Qrow in the head. He fell back down to the floor, rolling away and grabbed the chair he was in. The petite woman attacks him again, the blade nearly cutting his neck. He blocks the attack with the chair, followed by a one-inch punch to her. She shattered, to Qrow's surprise.

The small breather was cut very short, with the ice cream girl climbing on his back, trying to stab him. Qrow grabbed the blade, trying to prevent a stab. He then moves backwards into a wall, making it hit Neo two-fold, making her fall off of him, a glow vanishing from her. He turns, chair still in hand. She gets up, panting, and looking mad. She goes in charging, but Qrow counters by smashing the chair across her head. She goes spinning and lands face up, eyes closed.

Qrow pants, looking to the door before moving to Neo. He kicked the blade away from her, then checked her pulse, she's still alive. Breathing out, Qrow leaves the room, looking around before moving away.

He sees the room with his sword inside. Looking around again, he kicks the window pane and unlocks it from the inside. Blade in hand and his flask in the other he moves on, going to clear up this operation of good.

* * *

"Didn't I tell you to _wait_ for the drop off?!" Torchwick shouted. "You were suppose to get the dust after the Grimm arrived here!"

Having come down from a particularly bad situation, the cane wielding thief witnessed the pandamonium among the White Fang members with the feral Grimm.

"That is the _last_ _time_ I leave this in the hands of you!" The criminal exclaims, walking off after things calmed down. "Now are there any others?"

"Only three left," A larger White Fang member answered. "Two Beowolves, and a Ursa."

Torchwick groaned, covering his eyes in the view of the current snafu. "Tell your boss, we need more. And them tell my boss, that we're going to be a little behind schedule."

The Faunus nodded, walking off out the warehouse.

"First the massive Dust stealing amd now this?" The cane weilder spoke out loud to himself as he walked to another room, slamming the door in rage. Pinching his brow, he grabs a cigar after from his coat. Though something was missing.

His lighter.

"...Shit." He looks up, knowing now that he dropped it in the same room as Branwen. Though with Neo there, it didn't seem like he needed to worry to much about him.

A small fire flickered in front of him. Looking at it, he moved his head forward slightly for the cigar to light. "Thanks." He spoke.

Then it hit him just who had the flame.

"Ah...hello, boss." He laughs nervously, looking to a beautiful, but very angry looking raven haired woman in a red minidress. "Before you say your piece, let me start by saying; things were going absolutely smoothly...until that bastard we caught came along. And then those fu-"

He couldn't finish, as the woman put him in an armlock, a fire in her eye, as well as her palm, showed she was not in any sort of mood or his excuses.

"We've been through this, Roman," She said as she moves him in front of a furnace. "No more screw ups, or I'd give your charred corpse to Tyrian to do what he pleases with."

"Cinder, I told you; it was going smoothly!" Roman yelled out terrified. "And why that psycho? I'd rather be Taurus's slave tha-"

"Shut the hell up!" Cinder shouted. "You had your chance." A flame grew bigger in her hand.

"W-wait! There is something that went right! As I said before, we got someone! Caught them sneaking around, and is one of Ozpin's lackeys!"

This was enough for Cinder to let him go and power down a bit. "...Who?"

Roman turned, sighing in relief. "Does the name 'Qrow Branwen' ring a bell?"

Cinder's turned from confused to smug, then back to confused. "Interesting..." She paces back and forth while Roman watches nervously, his cigar shrinking into ashes in a few puffs.

"You've gained a second chance." Cinder spoke, finally facing Roman again after a few seconds of silence.

Roman leaned back against the furnace, relaxing from hearing those words. "Thank you."

"But don't mess this up again. Find out what he knows. Then I want him for myself." She leaves without another word out a different door.

Roman wipes sweat off his forehead, breathing out in relief from his near death expreriance...well, the worst if the week so far anyway.

"This is going to be a long night..." He walks out the room, heading back upstairs.

"Neo, how is it going up...Neo!"

He rushes to an uncountious Neo sitting beside some boxes, their prisoner clearly gone and the room a mess.

"Neo! Neo wake up. Please wake up!" He shakes her lightly, nervous about what happened to her.

A small gasp of air later, Neo wakes up, her eyes fluttering open slowly, her first sight being Roman. He hugs her, sighing out once again.

"Thank the gods...Are you alright?" He asked, which she could only nod in response, but grabs her head, feeling a splitting headache forming.

"Rest up. I'll find that bastard." Neo ablighed. Kissing her forehead, he leaves her to heal up, going to find wherever the Huntsman went.

* * *

Subterfuge and lies may not hav been Qrow's strongest asserts, which is bad not o have for a spy, but sneaking around is deffinetly something he's good at, especially when it comes to knocking people out. Leaving a trail of unconcious Faunus tying to escape, Qrow finds his way to the main room again. Most of the Grimm were dusted when he was last here, now it was time to finish the job for good.

Hiding behind a wall, sword in hand, he peeks around the cornor, seeing the now calmed Beowolves and Ursa chained up to the wall. White Fang are everywhere on the floor. If he's careful...

"Intruder!" The yell came from in from of him, and had only enough time to dodge a downwards slash coming towards him. Rolling out of the way, he sees the larger thug with his chainsaw sword rushing to attack him. After his last attempt before, he knew better than to take him head on again. Other White Fang members rush to circle and flank the Huntsman, aiming they're weapons right at him.

"Lieutenant, what do we do?" One of them asked, as Mr. Chainsaw came forward.

"Let me handle him." The Lieutenant answered, slamming his blade to the cement ground, leaving it there while cracking his knuckles. The members back off, still surrounding them. Qrow looks around, then to the Lieutenant. The Huntsman cracks his neck while stretching, then raised his blade to his opponent, breathing rapidly. Even though he has somewhat of an advantage with his semblance, dealing with Mr. Chainsaw and more of his goons was going to be a bigger challange than before. "Well then...bring it, big guy."

With that, the Lieutenant grabbed his chainsaw sword, taking it out of the ground and immediately went for an upward strike, sparking debris followed behind. Qrow dodges with a back flip, attacking the bigger man with a downward slash, missing as he countered with a kick, which was countered itself by ducking and going for the legs.

The Lieutenant jumps up, going for Qrow's head with his next slash, which Qrow blocked with his sword. The blades meet consistently, with Qrow on the defensive for most of the fight. With his next move, Qrow jumps up onto the the flat part of the chainsaw sword, surprising the Lieutenant and swiped him off. Qrow hopped and landed his feet Ono the Faunus's head, knocking him out cold.

The White Fang members watching them aimed their guns at Qrow again afterwards. Qrow only sighs.

"Look, I know what you all are here for," Qrow said. "And humans have been more than unfair to you. But if you back away now, we can all get out of this just fine and dandy."

The sound of gunfire interrupted, a blast missing Qrow by an inch. He looks up to the balcony, to see Torchwick above, the bottom of his cane smoking.

"If none of you kill him now, the next one is to your heads!"

Before they could shoot, Qrow vanished, a single black feather left behind. The group started shooting above them, only interrupted by one being knocked into another, courtesy of Qrow kicking them from behind.

Once guns were on him again, he rushed behind the Ursa, they shoot it while trying to get him. Before the Grimm could go berserk from the attack, Qrow climbs up from behind and cuts it's head off. It disintegrates to nothing, leaving only the head, which Qrow stabbed and swung around with his blade to know away the White Fang members, knocking them all away.

Roman barred his teeth, jumping down while Qrow took out the last two Grimm, shooting his cane at the Huntsman, who staggered forward before blocking an attack from behind him from the Thief.

Sword and cane met furiously, swings and stabs eventually lead Qrow to a wall, surrounded by more incoming Faunus Extremists.

"Looks like this is goodbye, Branwen," Roman reloads his cane gun. "Before you die, I'm going to enjoy every. Single. Bit. Of. Pain inflicted on you. Any last words?"

Qrow looks around, breathing heavy from the fight. He was surrounded now. Guns pointed to him and he was out of aura, and no ammo in his gun. He spots a gas barrel. If he could grab it with the scythe...

Before he could even go through with his idea, the sound of a exploding wall from behind him knocked him and everyone in front of him down.

Qrow groans, looking behind him, seeing an air ship, the side of it opened to see a familiar and somewhat friendly face, a rocket launcher mounted on her shoulder and smoking from the barrel.

"Get in, Bird Boy!" The white haired woman yelled out.

"Ice Queen," Qrow spoke while standing and stumbling. "Perfect timing as always." He runs, rushing from the incoming fire from the recovered White Fang.

Roman ran as well, chasing the escaping Huntsman to the air ship. Qrow jumps in, blade behind his back. The Crook jumps as well, but one spin kick from Winter and Qrow combined to the stomach denied him entry. Torchwick fell screaming, landing on his back. He groans in pain as the air ship flies away.

"Damn it all..." Roman watched as the ship flew off, waiting until it was out of site to stand up. This was going to be a bad one to explain the the witch...

* * *

Qrow sat back when the side of the ship closes, breathing out a sigh of relief being out of there. "Thanks for that escape," He commented, looking to Winter. "But what gave it away that I needed one?"

"Simple," Winter answered, putting the launcher away. "You didn't report in for the last 48 hours." She walked towards the Huntsman, sitting next to him, crossing her legs. "Besides, I was getting worried."

Qrow looked to her skeptically, eyebrow raised.

"What?!" She looked to him annoyed.

Qrow only laughed. "The Ice Queen getting worried. Never thought I'd hear that."

Winter growled, slapping him over the head. He couldn't help but laugh again when the slap landed.

"I _can_ be worried Qrow! I'm not a some motionless statue."

He chuckles again, scooting closer to her. "You know I mean well."

She huffs out, leaning into him as he wraps his arm around her. "One of these days your going to make me come after you in a rage."

Qrow continues to laughs. "I haven't yet have I?"

"No...not yet." She smirks. The two lock eyes, they're lips soon meet, eyes closed, arms around each other. The kiss soon ends, they're foreheads meeting.

"I love you." Qrow spoke first, a hand caressing Winter's face softly.

"I love you too," Winter replied, leaning into his touch. "Don't die on me, got it?"

"Wouldn't dream of it." They kiss again, all while the ship flies off to safety.

* * *

"One. Little. Slip up." Roman groaned, holding an ice pack over his forehead. He looked down at the warehouse. The operation was completely ruined. The Grimm turned to dust and the White Fang with him all too low in morale to even try to continue. This was was the epitome of bad luck.

Neo came along, mostly recovered from her interaction with the Huntsman. She held to cups of ice cream in her hand. Sitting next to Roman, she passed one to him. He looked down, shrugging and taking it. She scoots next to him, clanking the cups together.

"Neo," Roman speaks. "Let's make a deal to never work with Grimm again after this."

Neo rolled her eyes, biting into her dessert dish. Roman took a bite out of his as well. A smile was finally put on his face with the flavor; pumpkin.

"Maybe we should've just stayed in the city." He said, reflection on the situation. Neo could only shake her head, crossing her fingers on her chest, then holding them in the air to him, he followed suit by doing the same, the crossed fingers touching, followed by a pinky hook from the both of them.


End file.
